The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions urged caution on implementation of secure handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) and secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) call authentication. “NAFCU supports the Commission’s goal to eliminate illegal automated calls using a fully tested and effective STIR/SHAKEN framework,” said Wednesday's filing in docket 17-59. But the framework “must be designed to ensure that important and often time-sensitive calls that legitimate businesses, including credit unions, place to their customers are not blocked." Others also raised concerns. “Account for the potential unintended negative implications of these tools on consumers if not calibrated carefully,” NTCA commented: “False positives represent a very real concern.” The Consumer Bankers Association said legitimate calls must be completed: “Limitations and blockades to customer communications can have significant impacts.” The Professional Association for Customer Engagement said its members report that legal calls made by unpopular callers such as debt collectors are at times blocked. “Callers face challenges mitigating erroneous blocking because they often do not know for some time that an error occurred or its source,” the group said: “Currently, callers rely on noticing sharp downward trends in call completion rates, upturns in busy signal rates, and reports from called parties to identify erroneous call blocking.” Cox Communications said it offers Nomorobo, a third-party service. Less than 5 percent of its residential customers signed up, said the cable operator.
The FCC is expected to make changes to a draft Rural Digital Opportunity Fund order, responding to industry concerns that USF recipients could have trouble meeting financial requirements under the version that circulated earlier this month, agency officials told us Wednesday. They and stakeholders expect changes to address industry concerns about RDOF letter of credit (LOC) requirements (see 2001230005). Changes to allow New York state providers to bid in the program's phase one auctions (see 2001280039) aren't expected.
TRENTON -- A state senator wants to amend New Jersey’s constitution to stop about 90 percent of 911 fee revenue from being used for unrelated purposes. "It's high time that we say enough is enough,” said Sen. Michael Testa (R) alongside county and wireless officials at a Friday news conference.
The tribal window to apply for 2.5 GHz licenses was a big topic last month at a conference the American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) hosted at Arizona State University with the National Tribal Telecommunications Association and Gila River Telecommunications, AIPI filed, posted Wednesday in FCC docket 18-120. AIP said tribes are grateful for the opportunity to get free spectrum licenses, but the 2.5 GHz band won’t solve the digital divide in their areas. Attendees opposed “adoption of a rural Tribal Lands definition, which excludes Tribal lands that are not located in an urbanized area with a population of less than 50,000 people,” AIPI said: “This decision abrogates the Commission’s federal trust responsibility to all Tribal Nations -- which applies regardless of population density -- in that it arbitrarily and disproportionately affects Tribal Nations and their respective citizens and communities.” All future spectrum opportunities “should be acted upon consistent with the trust responsibility the Commission has with all Tribal Nations,” the institute said. The 2.5 GHz band is also limited, the filing said: “A Tribal Priority should be analyzed for extension to all commercial licenses, given the communications challenges facing Tribal Nations.” The FCC’s six-month window opens Feb. 3 (see 2001140059).
There's much attention to an FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund vote Jan. 30 (see 2001230005). Speakers at a Next Century Cities conference Thursday urged policymakers not to neglect low-income urban and minority communities to address the digital divide. The event was closed to the media in-person, so we heard the webcast.
The 5G Spectrum Act, even if it doesn't become law, could benchmark how satellite communications incumbents get compensated for clearing part of the C band, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly told reporters Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview. S-2881 "does have weight," especially as there seemingly has been a general shift from Capitol Hill resistance to any incentives, said. If satcom incumbents receive a percentage of the $40 billion in auction proceeds, as the legislation says (see 2001090021), debate will likely center on between 30 and 50 percent, though compensation could be a hard number for incumbents, or a combination of percentage and hard number, he said.
Two telcos didn't meet all deployment requirements for having gotten USF money from the federal government, they reported Thursday. That drew concern from some state officials.
A Supreme Court decision to hear a challenge by the American Association of Political Consultants questioning a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a key Telephone Consumer Protection Act case could have much bigger implications, TCPA lawyers told us Monday. DOJ also asked the court to hear the case. AAPC sought to have the entire ban thrown out on constitutional grounds, in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, docket 19-631. The high court granted cert Friday.
A majority of members of the current iteration of the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council come from the private sector because “qualified individuals who are nominated” to the group “may often be employed in the private sector because of the complex technical matters that CSRIC is asked to address,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wrote 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. The letters dated Jan. 3 were released Friday. Warren and Jayapal in June questioned “the extent to which” CSRIC “may be inappropriately dominated by industry insiders” given 13 of the current CSRIC iteration’s 22 members are from the private sector (see 1907010029). Two CSRIC members are associated with a communications sector trade group, six are from federal agencies and one is from a civil society group. CSRIC was rechartered in early 2019 for its seventh two-year iteration (see 1904160061). The agency “considers [CSRIC] nominees based on criteria for implementing the Federal Advisory Committee Act -- namely, whether the entities represented by the nominees would be directly affected by the matters likely to be addressed by the CSRIC and whether the nominees are qualified and have relevant experience,” Pai said. “The complex topics” before the current panel “affect industry segments … in different ways. Consequently, CSRIC members employed in the private sector often have differing interests and perspectives.” There's “rarely, if ever, a uniform ‘private sector’ position on the issues that come before the CSRIC,” he said. “The FCC considers these differing points of view from various industry sectors when balancing the expertise and viewpoints of the CSRIC membership.” The commission “further balances and includes diverse points of view through the inclusion of state, local, federal, and Tribal governmental entities; public safety organizations; and consumer and community organizations,” Pai said. “To promote diversity in its membership, the FCC also strives to select members from different areas of the country, with differing expertise, and representing organizations of different sizes.”
T-Mobile and states opposing the carrier’s Sprint buy re-emphasized their positions, before closing argument Wednesday at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Arguing (in Pacer) plaintiffs don’t have to prove anticompetitive intentions, states highlighted companies’ internal documents cited at trial as showing such motives, including a 2011 Deutsche Telekom slide deck saying one transaction benefit is a "rule of three" that would reduce price competition (see 1912100029). States questioned Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen’s credibility: "There is considerable reason for this Court to doubt whether DISH will build the promised network; and, even if it does, DISH’s most optimistic projections still fall well short of being timely, likely, or sufficient to replace the lost competition that Sprint has long provided.” States rejected (in Pacer) DOJ and the FCC urging the court defer to federal agencies’ conditional OKs (see 1912200043). "States are independent enforcers of the antitrust laws, and it is the role of the Court -- not any federal agency -- to decide the lawfulness of the merger," they said. “A prosecutorial decision by” DOJ “not to challenge a transaction is not a determination that the proposed merger is lawful under the Clayton Act,” and the same goes for a commission OK, the plaintiffs said. T-Mobile said (in Pacer) DOJ and the FCC agree the deal will mean lower prices, better wireless service and increased competition: “Plaintiffs have failed to carry their burden to prove that the world with this merger is likely to be substantially less competitive than the world without it." If not allowed, T-Mobile and Sprint will suffer and Dish won’t enter the market, they said. It's false to say the biggest U.S. carriers welcome the takeover, defendants said. “AT&T has been working with third parties to thwart the merger,” said T-Mobile, citing a July 17, 2018, email from AT&T Executive Vice President-Regulatory and State External Affairs Joan Marsh to Communications Workers of America Telecom Policy Director Debbie Goldman. Marsh wrote that she “wanted you to be aware of potential [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)] issues that some are raising.” The attachment raises possible national security concerns, including T-Mobile and Sprint using Chinese equipment, Softbank’s relationships with Chinese companies, and a foreign-owned company potentially holding more spectrum than U.S. carriers. "As far as I know, AT&T has not taken a position on the merger," a CWA spokesperson emailed: The union opposes the deal "because it would hurt working people." AT&T didn’t comment. A settlement between states and the carriers is deemed unlikely (see 1912300033).